


The Case of the Missing Prince

by Merfilly



Category: Beauty and the Beast (Disney) (1991), Peter Pan (Disney) (1953), The Little Mermaid (Disney) (1989)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Mystery, Yuletide, Yuletide 2008
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-07 06:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Prince goes missing, and Belle must solve the mystery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Case of the Missing Prince

**Author's Note:**

  * For [supersyncspaz7](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=supersyncspaz7).



> Yuletide Import Version: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1639214

In all her time of reading the books she could acquire, Belle had never lost her love for a good adventure or a mystery. She might have preferred not having her life turn into the mystery half of things, but having an adventure was not necessarily a bad thing.

Her princely husband had gone on a voyage to renew trading agreements with one of the coastal provinces, leaving her in the castle with the servants. As this provided her with time to read more of the books she had found in one of the castle rooms, she was not adverse to the plan.

Only his worst approximation of a return date had come and gone, as Cogsworth had so diligently informed her that same day. Three more had passed, and no book could distract Belle from prowling near the windows or walking the courtyard in hopes of seeing his return.

"There is only one thing to do, then!" Belle's words rang out to Mrs. Potts, Chip, and all the others surrounding her. "Lumiere? I need a horse saddled, and I'll need coin. I will have to travel to the town he was to visit, and learn what has happened."

"Mon Dieu, Madame!" the man said in a huff of shock even as Cogsworth began to bluster.

"I must. He would not leave me to languish, and I will not leave his fate unknown!"

"I'll go for you!" Chip called, madly crushing on the lady of the house as he approached his teens.

"You may not," Mrs. Potts told him firmly. "Dear...have you thought this out?"

"Yes, and all of you know it must be done. If I do not go find him, what will happen to all of us? The title of the land rests in him."

Cogsworth sighed, closing his eyes at her logic.

"Then, Madame, I shall accompany you as your chevalier," Lumiere vowed.

"Agreed, while I will keep the castle in tip-top shape," Cogsworth acceded.

`~`~`~`~`

Privately, Belle was of the opinion she could have guarded her own reputation better if she had traveled alone, given Lumiere's incessant...charming of the local maidens. People were bound to talk, but it was a small price to pay for his ability to get people to talk openly and without malice. Yes, her husband had passed along the road to the coast; no, he had not seemed in trouble.

She pressed on with her companion to the coast, meeting people who were not so different than her hometown possessed along the way. While Belle still tended to stand out in these little towns, being a woman who knew her mind and was willing to share it with others, Lumiere proved far more able to blend in than she ever would have suspected, given his bold mannerisms.

Just before they expected to see the city on the coast that was to have been the her husband's destination, Belle pushed her dun horse closer to Lumiere's and laid her hand on his arm for his attention.

"Let us go into the city unknown, Lumiere. Name me as your sister to the guards, if we must, but I think it best if they not know I am his wife, not until we know what happened to him," she counseled.

"A wise course, Madame," Lumiere agreed. "Though such a pretty rose never bloomed in my family," he added, just for the pleasure of seeing her smile in the face of her fears for her beloved.

`~`~`~`~`

The travelers entered a town that seemed far from inviting. It was not that the people were hostile, Belle mused, but that it was gloomy. A pall of misery seemed to be hanging over every citizen, yet no one spoke aloud of its cause.

Nor had any of them seen her husband. It left Belle a little uncertain that this mysterious adventure would turn out as well as the books often did.

"Lumiere, I'm not sure, but my heart says it may be safe to approach the ruler. We've heard nothing of our prince, and there is some tragedy hanging over these people," she finally said.

"I do believe you are right, Madame," he said. "We may find better answers by the direct approach at this point."

`~`~`~`~`

The palace here opened only after a wary conversation with the guards, but Belle and Lumiere were finally guided into the presence of the local Prince, a handsome fellow by the name of Eric. Belle was surprised at the initial impression of meeting her husband all over again, for they were not alike in any physical sense. It was as she realized the smile of greeting did not reach his eyes that she knew why the sense had struck her.

Eric was as shrouded in grief and lonely pain as her husband had once been, though he was trying to hide it under nobility, rather than gruff anger.

"I'm afraid it had even slipped my mind that your husband was to come here," Eric said, once their mission was spelled out in Lumiere's rolling, lyrical way. "He certainly never arrived."

"Oh." Belle did not let herself feel defeated; it only meant that her prince was somewhere between her and home, and that she had somehow overlooked his detour in her hurry to arrive at the coastal city. She shook off her consternation and looked at Eric with genuine concern. "Please, Prince Eric, what is it that makes you and your city so blue with grief?"

The ruler started to demur, to not say that which weighted them all so firmly. The appeal in her eyes, though, the way her chevalier waited with this expectant attentiveness, broke through his guard.

"I married last year, and my bride was quickly embraced by my people. She is a good woman, and I love her greatly. However, she was accustomed to greeting the sunrise on her own. A few weeks ago, she didn't come back."

"Your people searched, mais oui?" Lumiere asked.

"They did. I have. I will search as long as I have hope," he answered the man, his jaw forming a defiant line. "I love her too much to give up."

Belle looked at him with an understanding that went deep inside her soul. She felt much the same way, had faced it when the villagers came to kill the Beast.

"Which direction did she usually go to greet the day?" Belle asked, just as a thought came to her, that it was odd her husband and his wife had both vanished so close together. She knew her husband had been seen at the last major town.

"There's a grotto back toward the north, where the sea comes in and circles up," Eric said. "It's a quiet place, where she could swim if she chose."

"That's the direction we came from," Lumiere said, following the thought of some enemy at work.

"May I join your search, Prince Eric, to see if perhaps both our spouses have found the same trouble?" Belle asked.

"You are more than welcome to."

`~`~`~`~`

Eric, Belle, and Lumiere went out toward the grotto with Max, Eric's dog, just before dawn the next day.

"I searched here twice already," Eric said as he entered it ahead of them, the sun just barely a pink edge to the night sky.

"But not at the precise time she would have been here," Belle insisted. She had seen true magic, knew from her stories that certain times held certain powers. "Your wife came at dawn. My husband, if he followed the same path we did, may have passed close to dusk," she reasoned with him.

Eric opened his mouth to say something, but Max forestalled him, with a resounding growl as he looked toward the land side of the grotto, his back to the sea entirely. The humans turned their eyes that way too, and each one had to force their voices to be still as a land of magic and shimmering faeries appeared before their eyes.

Where the inlet of the sea disappeared into this mythical scene, mermaids (or maybe they were sea nymphs) cavorted and splashed at children along the banks, dressed in skins that made them appear as Badgers and Raccoons and Squirrels. It was among the children that a large, leonine Beast played, lost in the peace of the faerie world he had been lured to.

Eric did cry out, then, as one of the mermaids rose up in the water to splash the largest of the skin-clad children, making the others laugh when 'Cubby' tried to splash her back by tossing one of the Squirrels into the water.

Belle tried to move forward, to reach her Prince, who was somehow the Beast once more, but a zipping flash of light appeared in front of her. When her eyes had focused, she realized it was one of the faeries, dressed in green with an acorn cap, and she did not look pleased that mere mortals had found her playground.

"Oh please!" Belle said with fierce love and a wish for her reunion with her husband.

"Ariel!" Eric called at the same time.

The little green-clad faerie heard that note, the one she knew too well for when her chosen friend forgot about her, and looked at the two newest magical people in her glen. She could see they had forgotten quickly. Neverland had that effect on people, especially those who were as touched by magic as they had been. However, the faerie knew that Love was the truest magic, and she sighed. With a quick dart inside, she lured each of the people out of Neverland and into the real world, an act that forced their enchantments away.

Belle ran to her husband, half aware of Eric moving to the pretty red-haired woman.

"Are you okay?" she asked, hugging him.

"I am now, Belle."

Lumiere was the only one who saw the faerie realm disappear, as the two couples were united properly. As it did, he thought he saw the faerie gathering up everyone and moving them away from where the gateway had been.

`~`~`~`~`

Prince Eric, in honor of Belle's quick thinking, threw a party for them all after they returned from the grotto. The two princes put aside business for now, while their wives got to know each other, and Lumiere discovered the chef here was as prickly as Cogsworth had ever been.

`~`~`~`~`

Inside the little cusp of Neverland, a little green-clad faerie led the others of her kind in a unanimous vote. No more would they allow Neverland to touch the world directly, as they set the gateways high in the sky, second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning.


End file.
